It’s is an interesting situation at the very least, but as a non Gruden supporter, I see nothing wrong with shopping your services around to the highest bidder, if there is / was no signed contract then it was nothing more then a proposal by both sides that never was finalized for what ever reason.

Oakland is believed to be asking for a third round pick in exchange for Burgess who turns 31 before the start of the regular season. His sack totals have decreased over each of the last four seasons from 16 in 2005, to 11 in 2006, to 8 in 2007, to 3.5 in 2008. It would seem that Burgess who is an undersized DE at 6’2 266 might be on a downward spiral at this point in his career, not to mention a team would have to be willing to take on his 3.5 million dollar salary for 2009.

But the bigger problem lies with not knowing for sure, if Burgess is truly done, with all the speculation about him being unhappy over the Raiders not offering him an extension, it should read buyer beware under his name, with the recent injury history and dramatic drop in his numbers this is a player the Bucs should steer clear of.

In other news the Bucs conducted another round of OTA’s, in which some of

Stroughter running with frist team offense

the rookies were present. There has not been much from media outlets in the way of news breaking from One Buc Place, but as we have learned 7th round draft pick Sammie Stroughter was running with the first team. All though we caution the fanatics out there, to keep a level head about Mr. Feel Good.

Raheem Morris, earlier in the week stated that he would see if the rookies are man enough to play and if they are man enough to play then they would get the chance to compete, if not then the team would look at second and third year guys or other places to find players who are man enough to play and contribute at this level, you also have to take into account that with the release of Galloway and Hilliard if the team was in a three, four or five receiver set when he was running with the first team, just becuase he was working with the first team, doesn’t mean that all the receivers were present and accounted for which might have lead to Stroughter getting the chance as the number four of five receiver in different sets.

Stroughter will be used in the slot to take advantage of his route running and sure hands not to mention his wiggle after the catch and his toughness going over the middle on drag routes and slants.

Freeman receives limited reps with veterans

Josh Freeman receives limited reps, but got some time with first team offense.

“I was limited on my reps. I was just trying to get a feel for how the veteran guys to do it,” said Freeman. “They’re really helping me along a lot. Luke, Byron and Josh Johnson are giving me a lot of advice.

“Luke and Byron took all the live rounds [during the blitz period]. Then they went through it with the younger guys, the rookies and second-year guys. We went back and redid the entire period, and that’s where I got a lot of reps. I got pretty much the same work in.” Source: PewterReport.com

Freeman, stated practice went real smooth for the most part.

“Today was really smooth. Everybody seemed like they knew what they were doing. It looked really good. It is new for everybody, but Luke was in a similar offense last year and Byron has been in offenses like this one. I think everybody felt pretty good about it today. I don’t know what everybody was thinking, but from my point of view it looked pretty good.” Source: PewterReport.com